The pictures below happened practically ages ago. And by ages, I mean only weeks. I'm still trying to catch up. Mostly. It seems I'm stacking up writerly functions. And then forgetting to blog about them. Makes me feel like a chump (especially since I will not get to all of them). In fact, since this event (pictured below), I've gone to even more events, which makes me feel like a bigger chump for being so behind.

Okay, so to catch you up (kind of). Ages ago (weeks), the fabulous Erica Chapman and I decided we'd make the trek back to Anderson's in Naperville (the indie bookstore I mentioned like a bazillion times now) a week after Veronica Roth's Divergent book launch at the same book store to attend another YA authors' book signing (3 1/2 hour drive). There was a special title for the event, but I'm not much good at remembering titles or names or dates or people's faces or my birthday. It had to do with luck, the title. But that's all I got.

Suffice it to say that there were some amazing authors there: Lisa and Laura Rocker (The Liar Society), Julia Karr (XVI), Leah Clifford (A Touch Mortal), Courtney Moulton (Angelfire), Sara Bennett Wealer (Rival), Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon's Surrender), Saundra Mitchell (The Vespertine), and Christine Johnson (Claire de Lune) were all signing. Like us, Scott Tracey (Witch Eyes), Erica O'Rourke (Torn), and Loretta Nyhan were also there to support their author friends, and we all connected at some point in the evening. Every last one of them is a freaking superstar, by the way. I was wowed to even be in the same room. Talk about a special event to share with my sweetie peetie gal pal Erica C. Had so much fun with her, as always.

But, yeah, so Erica and I arrived a little late. Again. Don't be a hater, it happens to the best of us. It's not like I TRY to be late to these things. It's called arriving fashionably. Or something. I really need a personal assistant, FYI.

All the signing authors talked a bit before signing. They were all very funny and fun and awesome.

From left: Saundra Mitchell, Lisa Roecker, and Laura Roecker.
They're all looking to the side because I said, "Okay, everybody look to the right now." Not really.

From the left: Lisa, Laura, Leah Clifford in the cute yellow sweater, Courtney Moulton, and Sara Bennett-Wealer. There is also some woman's head up really close. Lovely shade of chestnut.

And here is Scott Tracey, first with Erica, then with me. He gave us some fabulous bookmarks for his YA novel, WITCH EYES.

Here's a group photo. I won't label them all. I did that already, k?

Here I am with Sara Bennet Wealer. She has the best laugh, and is so genuine and friendly. You can't help but smile when you're with her.

And here we are with my favorite authorly sister duo, Lisa and Laura Roecker. So kind, these two. Beautiful inside and out.

I'm not sure why we were laughing. But I think Scott Tracey was involved.

Here I am with Julia. We've met up loads of times now. I forgot to tell her I was coming. So when I walked in, she was like, DUUUUUUDE you are EVERYWHERE. Except she didn't say dude, but now I'm going to beg her to say it. That would be awesome. P.S. She's my all time favorite Julia. A truly amazing person.

There was a gathering after the signing at a local pub. Bar? I don't know. I've been to this place twice, and I can't remember the name. Anyway, here we are with Loretta Nyhan. Such a sweetheart. One of those people that you wish you could miniaturize so you can carry them everywhere with you to take out when you need a hug except that would be creepy so you should probably just have them Facebook friend you.

Finally, here I am with Leah. Who by the way, wins the award for superest cutest dress of the night. Also? You can totally tell how sweet she is just by looking at her. A dearheart, I tell you. A beautiful person.

I wish I had a picture with Erica O'Rourke. She was freaking funny and so so kind. She has a book coming out in July called TORN, which I'm really excited about.

Okay, that's it for pictures. I didn't use my camera nearly enough, and a few of these I stole from Erica (namely pictures 5, 8, 9, 11, and 12). I think this was the last signing I went to. But I'm headed to ALA's annual conference next week, at which there will be a boatload of signings. I'll try to make as many as I can (and then blog about it). I'm excited about everything except the New Orleans humidity. Yeah.

37 comments:

You are so lucky that you got to meet them all. And that you have a friend you can make the long trek with. I would have loved to have been there. Have fun at the ALA conference. I know you'll bring back a ton of good books.

I'm not exactly sure how to feel about stuff like this. On the one hand I'm totally jealous because I know some of these people, and they're amazing. It would probably be awesome to meet them in real life.

On the other hand, I'm super shy in person and not the best on road trips with people I don't know well. So getting out of my shell and actually interacting with other human beings is a little bit terrifying.

Looks like a great time, especially since you were able to meet so many talented authors in one sitting. I like to think I could go to something like this one day, but I doubt I would for the same reasons Matt described above. Have a great time at the ALA conference.

I second Matthew's comment (except for the Simon part)...too insecure for these things, which is odd, considering my previous career required me to attend job fairs and my current pt job works with the public. This feels very intimidating to me...though I can tell it's a lot of fun for you!

What a fantastic group of people! It sounds like you had a blast. I wish I would have known you were going, I would have told you to say hi to Sarah for me. I haven't seen her in so long! Thanks for the pictures, they rock.